What is Snap Map? Know how to use Snapchat’s new stalky location-sharing feature

Few days ago Snapchat introduced a new feature after being silent post the major clone of Facebook. Snapchat needed a new hit product after Instagram Stories copied and surpassed it. Would that be Snap Map?

Would that be Snap Map?

If snap chat succeeded in using the drop location-based content discovery without violating people’s privacy, they would definitely fire up the online content with offline reality!

The new feature, Snap Map, simply lets you share your location with your Snapchat friends, and view their location on a map, updating when you open the photo messaging app. You will be able to see exactly where your Snapchat friends are hanging out and what they are doing in case they shared it as a story.

Snapchat released the update saying:

“We’ve built a whole new way to explore the world! See what’s happening, find your friends, and get inspired to go on an adventure” wrote Snapchat on their company blog to announce the feature.

Wanna try it now?

All you have to do is access the app camera screen, pinch the screen, or zoom out touch motion with your fingers.

You can now view the Snap Map with actionmoji – cartoon avatars – of your friends and tapping on them will make you see their most recent story at that place.

It will also allow friends to see your location and story.

Alternatively, you can search the map in ‘Ghost mode’ – when this is enabled, your friends will not be able to see your location, but you can see theirs. You can call it Stalker Mode.

Even stories from non-friends can be viewed because Snapchat will make some available to the public through “Our Story” option.

A Privacy threat?

Once the feature was released, concerns over privacy were raised to the surface. Rumors spread mentioning that Snap Map will broadcast your exact location to anyone on your friends’ list every time you open the app.

Snapchat has prepared for these privacy issues, this feature will never work unless you have the location sharing settings on and you will also be automatically on ‘Ghost mode’ if you have been inactive on the app for a couple of hours. Snapchat also knows that users will be wary of sharing their stories with that annoying ex, overfriendly boss or tech savvy mom, there is an option to choose which friends you want to share location with and whom to hide from.

Augmented Reality

Snap Map is Snapchat’s plan to combine together online content with ways to augment your offline reality, and they acquired the patent to back it up. Augmented reality location startup Drop’s intellectual property was acquired by Snapchat in 2015, including its “Location-based messaging” patent.

Drop is an app developed in 2013 that allows you to post photos or text to a certain location, like a landmark or business, and your followers would get an alert to check it out when they came nearby. By utilizing Drop’s intellectual property, Snapchat could launch a similar feature allowing users to discover location-based messages with the Snap Map or Snapchat’s AR lenses.

Snapchat is not alone …

During Facebook F8 conference in April, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s augmented reality Camera Effects Platform will include the ability to leave AR notes for people at specific places. Meanwhile, Instagram recently launched Location Stories that show other people’s ephemeral photos and videos from certain places.

That means there is a war between Facebook/Instagram and Snapchat to see who can popularize geofenced content. Their challenge is to encourage users to take out their phones to check if there’s any hidden content wherever they are and inspire them to capture and share their own location-based content regardless privacy issues. Which app do you think will win?